Christmas Day In Argentina.

Chritmas day was HOT but not as hot as it has been on some occasions in the past and it did not rain! That meant we had the trad Brit Turkey and Trimmings up on the roof terrace where we did have a lot of sun but also a little respite from a sweet little breeze. The turkey weighed in at 9.5 kilos so it fed the party of twelve and the Argentines in the group were quite adventurous trying the two types of stuffing, the bacon rolls, the bread sauce and the GRAVY.......Desserts were definitely non-trad with fresh home-made mango sorbet, plums in red wine from Mendoza and caramalised apple pie. Plenty of cream and ice cream to counter the rich, hot food! Jamie provided real ale and everybody brought wine and champagne. It was quite laid back but we enjoyed having the young crowd back at home. Reminded me of Liverpool in my youth ( except for the weather). Two guests were rather special, the daughter and friend of an old school mate of mine from Quarry Bank who are studying at the University of Buenos Aires. Lynne had found me on Friends Reunited and told me about her daughter being here in Argentina. The wonder of technology!

Christmas Eve 2006

Christmas Eve fell on Sunday this year and Sunday is sacrosanct in Argentina. Most husbands go out to buy the big lumps of meat and prepare the parrilla, the outdoor BBQ pit which is usually built into the wall of every ordinary house either in the yard, the garden or on the terrace. Most use charcoal but some use fragrant wood. This year it was different as the neighbourhood was like a ghost town with most of the women already preparing the cold cuts, turkeys, suckling pigs, salads, sauces (chimichurri), and turrons, (nougat), for the evening family party before the traditional opening of the presents at midnight and the setting off of fireworks all over the city.
We stick to British tradition and celebrate on the 25th.
I decided to visit my little Peruvian greengrocer to see if he had the aji panca, aji amarillo and aji rocoto ( searing hot chillies) and cilantro which I need for practising my Peruvian cooking from my beautiful cookbook which Longman gave me at the end of my Presentation last year in Lima.
So I cooked a great Peruvian lunch for the family and then went out to buy the last minute stocking pressies , the fresh veggies and the ordered turkey, with chipolatas, bacon and chicken livers.
Then we went off to a friends' place to join them in their Noche Buena party, eat great food, drink super wine and then exchange presents. It was lovely.
We left earlyish as I had to be up at 7am. to stuff the 10 kilo turkey and get it in the oven for lunch on the 25th.

Happy Holidays from Snowy Argentina!

Wishing all of you a fabulous fiesta with friends and family.

Much love from all of us at the Hillyard Home in Buenos Aires Argentina.

Family Update for December 2006

Sue
It's been a strange year with me away for much of it doing teacher training and conferences and workshops in four different countries. The highlights have been my " Let's Live Liverpool" course which I did twice this year. The first time was in the hills of Cordoba, in a holiday resort with beautiful cabins and a pool and superb views to the mountains at the back and the lake in the valley below. The second time was in Pico Truncado, Patagonia, at the newly refurbished municipal theatre. We had three wonderful days of Liverpool history, literature, language, culture and song all through drama. It was a lovely experience to get to know each other so well and the final reviews were wonderfully original and creative.

The other highlight was the teacher training experience at NILE in Norwich, where I stayed in conference accomodation with 28 other trainers from all over the world training teachers from all over Europe.There was the woods outside my front door at Constable Terrace in the University of East Anglia and I ran through the woods and round the lake every day before class. Mick came to stay for 3 weeks so I went to Leicester to see him and his parents who are both old and ailing now. In all I've done about 50 talks in 30 events.

Mick
Mick is fine, still at Nightingale as the rocking Headmaster and the band is doing better this year........so well, that when I am at home, they are playing most weekends! They've been upgraded to the downtown branch of the Irish Pub John John where they play once a week and they've had lots of important private parties and weddings too. Mick gave up smoking last year in October and has put on about 8 kilos. He looks great although he thinks he's too fat! I hope he doesn't go anorexic on me! He looks much better and is much happier in general. Still loves his food, especially his Argentine steak, his music, his films and his beer. We've found a few pubs that sell REAL ALE now and we've had a few outings with friends trying to convince them that Real Ale is what it says it is!

Jamie
Jamie is still working with his friend selling inflatable adverts ( those huge inflatable bottles and brand packets etc). He's doing a bit of teaching, translating subtitles for films and is thinking of going camping in Europe for a while next year. He's done quite a bit of private catering and I'm very proud of his "touch". He's just as good at Chinese as he is at Indian or Thai. We often cook together and invite a mixed bunch of oldies and youngies over for dinner parties. He's just got it. He is still with his lovely Armenian girlfriend and seems very happy.

Sarah
Sarah is thrilled she made the decision to choose a career as a bilingual kindergarten teacher. She loves the course although grammar and phonetics were difficult for her. She goes to the Teach Training college in the morning ( leaves home at 7 am) and then dashes off to teach in kindergarten all afternoon in a very important school in Recoleta. She has developed her singing skills with the band as you can see below and now gets some considerably important solos. She has wonderful stage presence and gets on very well with the boys in the band.

So we're all still together for yet another Xmas and New year do. The house is coming on although still lots to fix so we're looking forward to another busy year here in Argentina.

Sunday night we will all go to our respective friends' places for the traditional Argentine Noche Buena and then on Monday we will invite friends over here for the Traditional British Turkey and Trimmings lunch up on the roof terrace in the scorching sun!

Merry Christmas to you all and a happy new year.

Just missed out most of the year 2006!

I've jumped but I suppose that's OK too. My intention is to cover my first freelance year with the most memorable moments .....which is just about all so my next job is to go back and look at all the stuff I did this year and dig for photos!

Bluesberry Jam in Buenos Aires

Today is Mick's birthday, but in true Argentine fashion, we celebrated last night by going to the Bangalore Pub in Palermo, a trendy area of boutiques, resto bars, traditional AR food like grills ( fab steak and chicken in all its forms, with lots of exotic innards and sweetmeats....nothing is wasted here!) and copycat English pubs , Irish pubs and American bars plus a sprinkling of Sushi restaurants and Asian eateries.

Mick chose the Bangalore as it has a pub atmosphere, real beer, Stones, and goodish ( if a short menu) Indian food which is hard to find in AR

We had a great time and came home to wish Mick happy birthday and give him his presents which revolved around accoutrements for our home bar and music books.

Today he slept late and then we went for lunch in a lovely old rustic restaurant called La Escondida ( The Hidden One) and we're now getting ready to go downtown to John John, an Irish bar where they will perform from midnight to about 3am when we might( or not) come home and go to bed like all good people!
The pic is the latest ad designed by Sarah that we send out by mail when they play.